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Hi everyone,
I think it would be a great idea to summarize the graduate review policies (for the schools that have them) for all the grad student applicants on this site. I'll try to add information when I have time, but if you can contribute any info that you've gathered.... I would highly appreciate it. This thread can serve as a guide for grad students who want to figure out what schools they have a good chance at.
Basically, the type of info I'm hoping we can put together is:
The School's Name
Is there any grad student advantage for this school? Such as:
Are bonus points award for grad students? If so, when must you have your degree completed by?
Is their GPA or MCAT flexibility for graduate students?
Does graduate school GPA count towards anything?
Are bonus points awarded to for grad students? If so, when must you have your degree completed by?
Are there any special policies for graduate students (ex. additional application required, additional references required) and if so, what do these policies entail?
So if you know any of the answers to these questions for any of the schools, or if you have any other important questions - please share! I'll try to compile the information that people post, and then we can have the thread stickied! It would also be great if you could provide a link to where you found this information from.
University of Alberta
-For applicants in a graduate program, you are subject to the same course requirements as applicants with Bachelor degrees with no course exemptions.
-The overall cumulative GPA is calculated using all transferable post-secondary work completed (with the deletion of the lowest year GPA). Courses taken during your graduate program are only used in the calculation of the cumulative GPA if the unit of course weight during an academic year is 18 units of course weight or higher.
-Applicants who have obtained a Masters or Ph.D. by Thesis may be asked to provide the name and address of the Chair of their Defense Committee so that an evaluation of their Thesis may be obtained.
-Applicants who have obtained a Master's by course work, instead of Thesis, are subject to the same course requirements as applicants with Bachelor's degree, and there will be no course exemptions.
-When confirmation of successful completion of a Masters degree by thesis or PhD by thesis is received in our office prior to the June 15 deadline, additional points may be allocated to your application as follows:
Masters 1 point
Ph.D. 3 points
http://www.med.ualberta.ca/Education/UME/admissions/dofm_require.cfm#Graduate
University of British Columbia
-Includes graduate school classes in the GPA calculation (http://www.med.ubc.ca/education/md_ugrad/MD_Undergraduate_Admissions/Evaluation_Criteria.htm)
-Graduate students wishing to enter the UBC Faculty of Medicine Undergraduate Program must complete the program in which they are registered by June 30 prior to admission. All degree requirements, including successful defense and submission of approved thesis in final form, must be completed by this deadline. Graduate students in non-thesis based programs must complete all required courses, projects, exams, practicums, etc. and have all grades submitted by June 30. (http://www.med.ubc.ca/education/md_ugrad/MD_Undergraduate_Admissions/Graduate_Students.htm)
-Graduate students who are invited for an interview will be required to have their thesis supervisor, or program/department head complete an electronic form stating that the applicant will likely finish their program by June 30. If the supervisor is unable to confirm that the applicant will finish by this date or if a response is not received from the supervisor by the stated deadline on the Graduate Student Report form, the interview offer will be rescinded.
Notification of Completion - June 30 (http://www.med.ubc.ca/education/md_ugrad/MD_Undergraduate_Admissions/Graduate_Students.htm)
University of Calgary
-Those students enrolled in advanced degrees may count full-time study in their degree provided at least one-half (½) course has been completed and a grade has been awarded during the year(s) of full-time study.
Dalhousie University
-Take all your course grades from your Masters and count it as one year's GPA. This year, in addition with your two best undergraduate years are averaged together to determine your eligible GPA. For Ph.D, it's the same except they use only your best year (year 3 or 4) from your undergrad. You must meet stated GPA minimums to be eligible for an interview. (http://admissions.medicine.dal.ca/gda.htm)
University of Manitoba
Graduate students are screened the same as undergraduate students on the basis of undergraduate coursework and MCAT criteria. However, applicant’s accomplishments during graduate studies will be taken into account in determining the Personal Assessment Score (PAS). (http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/medicine/admissions/gen_questions.html#faqG12)
McGill University
GPA Calculation:
Academic achievement is determined from the academic record in undergraduate studies, science pre-requisites, and the result of the Medical College Admission Test (where applicable). While completed graduate degrees are taken into consideration, applicants should know that the undergraduate cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of the degree and MCAT scores are the major consideration in measuring academic performance. The difficulty of the program, credit load and course levels are also taken into consideration. Students are encouraged to ensure they have taken higher level courses where applicable.
-No other considerations for graduate students.
McMaster University - Michael G Degroote School of Medicine
-Additional 1% added to pre-interview score for MSc students, additional 4% added for PhD students
-Must have degree prior to application
Memorial University
Is preference given to or is there bias against students in a graduate program? How are graduate courses considered? No, there is neither preference given to nor bias against students in a graduate program. Graduate courses are considered a part of the whole academic record and calculated in the overall academic average/GPA. (http://www.med.mun.ca/Admissions/FAQ-s.aspx)
Northern Ontario School of Medicine
-0.2 will be added to those graduate students who have degree conferred by December of the year of application (http://www.normed.ca/education/ume/general.aspx?id=1232)
University of Ottawa
-The previous graduate review policy has been discontinued. Only undergraduate work is considered.
Queen's University
-May permit GPAs lower than the cutoff for graduate students
-This does not apply to MCAT scores, all graduate students must meet MCAT cutoffs
University of Saskatchewan
In considering graduate students, the average may be based on the following, or the two best full undergraduate years, whichever works to their advantage:
- Course-based graduate program, which may or may not include a research project. The average of all grades in the program will count as one full year combined with the best two full undergraduate years. The post-graduate program must be comparable to at least one full academic year (30 credit units).
- Master’s thesis-based program. The average of all Master’s grades will count as one full year combined with the best two full undergraduate years.
- Ph.D. thesis-based program. The average of all graduate grades will count as one full year combined with the best full undergraduate year.
For all graduate programs, the program must be completed and grades available by DECEMBER 31, 2009, FOR THOSE ATTENDING OUT-OF-PROVINCE INSTITUTES and by APRIL 30, 2010, FOR THOSE ATTENDING INSTITUTIONS WITHIN SASKATCHEWAN AS SASKATCHEWAN RESIDENTS. Graduate programs not complete by required date will not invalidate application, but will require competitive average to be based on best two undergraduate years not graduate grades.
(http://www.medicine.usask.ca/education/admissions/admissions-information/academic-requirements/)
University of Toronto
-Lower GPA cutoff is permitted for graduate students (3.00 vs 3.60) because of added emphasis on graduate school productivity
-A Graduate Application Package must be completed (http://www.md.utoronto.ca/admissions/information/requirements/Graduate_Applicants/The_Graduate_Application_Package.htm) and it consists of a CV, submission of research productivity, and up to 3 bonus reference letters
-Important (candid) information about Graduate Application Package is found on the U of T medicine blog here and here. I strongly suggest reading these to give you more of an idea about how they evaluate graduate applications.
University of Western Ontario - Schulich School of Medicine
Graduate students are required to have completed all course requirements for their degree. Their thesis (if required) must be submitted for defense to their examination committee prior to registration in the medical program. Western does not take graduate courses into consideration for the GPA; only undergraduate years are used. Applicants who are currently enrolled in a Master’s program are encouraged to make inquiries about our MD/PhD program.
(http://www.schulich.uwo.ca/education/admissions/medicine/documents/FAQs20080930.pdf)

This is from the old EZboard, I just thought it would be useful to have on here. If you're aware of any changes to this list... make sure you post them!
The message below is copied from SDN (http://www.studentdoctor.net) ... because it may be useful to people, and it's easier to find old threads here than there.
Schools that are marked with an asterisk ( * ) have been PERSONALLY identified by an SDN member that they interview regular Canadians
Baylor
Boston Univ.
Brown
Case Western
Columbia*
Dartmouth*
Duke University *
Einstein *
Emory
Finch/Chicago Medical School*
Georgetown
George Washington *
Harvard*
Hawaii*
Hopkins*
Jefferson *
Maryland
Meharry*
MCW (Medical College of Wisconsin)*
Michigan State University-CHM*
U of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Mt. Sinai *
Northwestern*
NYMC*
U of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
Ohio State * -- NO LONGER ACCEPTS CANADIANS/INTERNATIONALS
Penn State *
Rosalind Franklin University
Saint Louis University*
Stanford
Stony Brook
SUNY - Syracuse (Upstate Medical University)*
Tufts *
Tulane *
Univ of Chicago--Pritzker
UCLA
UCSF
University of Connecticut
University of Pennsylvania
Vanderbilt *
Vermont
Virginia Commonwealth University
Wake Forest *
Washington Univeristy (St. Louis) *
Wayne State *
Weill Medical School (Cornell)
Yale University*
For private schools,
NO MCP in Philly
NO Rochester (unless you have gone there for undergrad)
Aid:
Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Yale
Scholarships:
CWRU, Wash U in St. Louis
Tuition break (for Canadians only?):
UCONN, in-state tuition starting 2nd year of med school
UPDATE:
Special thanks to token for providing a much needed update to the list:
Here’s an alternative list of schools that you can assume are Canadian friendly.This list is very conservative. I started with the schools that I personally know are Canadian friendly (because either someone here or someone I know interviewed there) and we can add to it from there. However it is entirely possible that there are schools missing, so do your own research! (Also please PM me or a mod if you have more info to add, especially re: financial aid and escrows).
Black – PM101 certified Canadian friendly. You will likely still be at a disadvantage compared to American applicants, but they do accept Canadians.
Red – require at least 1 year's tuition in escrow prior to matriculation
Orange – will only take international students who have completed some undergraduate coursework in the US
Green – offers financial aid and/or merit scholarships to Canadians
Grey – should be Canadian friendly based on MSAR/USNews international statistics, but can’t be directly verified
California: the two top UCs have varying histories wrt accepting international students. They both screen for secondaries however. Stanford like all other private top tiers is citizenship-neutral.
Loma Linda - SDA (or compatible belief systems) only!
UCLA
UCSF
Stanford
Connecticut:
University of Connecticut
Yale
DCish:
Georgetown
George Washington
Georgia:
Emory
Hawaii
Illinois:
University of Chicago – Pritzker
Northwestern
Rosalind Franklin
Kentucky:
University of Kentucky
Louisiana:
Tulane
Maryland:
Johns Hopkins
University of Maryland
Massachusetts:
Boston University
Harvard
Tufts
Michigan:
Michigan State
Wayne State
Minnesota:
Mayo Medical School
University of Minnesota
Missouri
Saint Louis University
Washington University at St Louis
New Hampshire:
Dartmouth
New York:
Albany
Albert Einstein (Yeshiva)
Columbia
Cornell
New York Medical College
New York University
Mount Sinai
SUNY Upstate
Stonybrook
North Carolina:
Duke
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
Wake Forest University
Ohio:
Case Western Reserve
Pennysvlania:
Jefferson
University of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State University
Rhode Island:
Brown – effectively, since there are so few places for students not already enrolled in their BS/MD program
Tennessee:
Vanderbilt
Meharry
Texas: note, you cannot apply to Texas schools through AMCAS. You must apply through their own dedicated application service, TMDSAS.
Baylor
UT Medical Branch @ Galveston
UT Southwestern
Virginia:
Virginia Commonwealth University
EVMS
Wisconsin:
Medical College of Wisconsin

It's basically a procedure where the tumour is excised by the dermatologist who is trained as a Mohs Surgeon (requires a fellowship after dermatology residency). The dermatologist acts also as the pathologist and views all of the slides of the removed tumour to ensure that the tumour is completely resected. If there is any remaining tumour, he or she will go back to the exact location of where it remains and remove more skin. It is meant to be conservative, while ensuring complete removal of the tumour. It is definitely becoming the standard of care.

Does anyone know if that, in-fact, is happening? There are a tonne of Canadian IMGs who I'm sure would GLADLY have a return of service agreement for getting licenced in Canada. Sounds pretty messed up to me...

My parents are my cosigners. They both have mortgages and we were able to be approved. The max they gave me was $150 000. At the time, the max for Canadians in Canada was 200K. Not sure if that has changed now. I am a US permanent resident and Canadian citizen and have access to US loans as well, but they are really expensive 7-8% interest so I am trying to stay clear of them. If you use federal loans, interest begins to accrue on the entire loan which is given to you upfront immediately (unlike an LOC where interest occurs on the balance only). Also, no payments are required on the federal US loans, but the interest you accrue is added to the amount you owe and also accrues interest.

I use RBC. Another great thing, if you open an account with RBC Bank (the USA division), you can send transfers between your LOC/Canadian chequing account to the RBC Bank USA account for FREE and they are instantaneous. You get unlimited transfers between the accounts. The US account is only like $2/month.

Med schools may or may not. You cannot gurantee anything. Residency programs also may or may not. Our school has told us that they know many residency programs actively scope out applicants on facebook to just screen for lack of professionalism. That's why, be very careful what you write and post online or it could seriously hurt your reputation/career prospects later.

Totally agree. It is extremely expensive to go abroad and it is very, very difficult to come back. You have to be extremely motivated and driven and then have to jump through many, many hurdles to find your way into clinical practice. Not looking to put you down, but to stress the challenges you will be facing and give you some food for thought.

If you're thinking about substance abuse prior to even beginning medical school, how do you think you will choose to deal with a tough medical curriculum when things are intense? It's easy to really get carried away with drugs trying to enhance your performance, and it's all silly. You don't need to do drugs to succeed in medical school. Some people actually do need these medications for their daily lives, but if your only reason for looking at this is to boost your grades, then you are about to take part in setting a dangerous precedent for yourseslf.

There are many that do every year! I don't have the 2012 numbers but below you can see the 2011 results:
http://www.carms.ca/pdfs/2011R1_MatchResults/1_Summary%20of%20Match%20Results%20R1%201st_2nd%20Combined_en.pdf
Now the important thing to remember is Canadian grads of US schools can participate in both matches. However, the Canadian match is first and if you are picked in Canada, then you are automatically withdrawn from the US match. If you look at the results from 2011, 22 of 35 matched, 13 did not.
Why did the 13 go unmatched?
1. Perhaps some were aiming for a very competitive specialty and only ranked that specialty because they preferred to try to get into a US program rather than having a back up in Canada.
2. As a Canadian grad of a US school, you have a bit less opportunity to network with program directors in Canada (unless you do electives there)... so this puts you in a little bit of a disadvantage.
Overall though, you can match in the first round and many do every year. The chances of matching though depend on how competitive the specialty you are applying to is and how widely you apply.

Decent shot at mid-tier schools with those stats, provided that you apply early!
English isn't a problem, as long as you indicate on the application you will be taking them (list them as 'future courses')
The 2nd year courses won't be an issue
The crucial thing is applying early. You are able to submit the application as of June 1st. Because the US operates on rolling admission, an early submission ensures you are among the first people reviewed (when no school has given out any interviews or acceptances yet, so you have a much higher chance of getting one). I cannot stress how important it is to apply early! Your MCAT score can hurt you if you apply late.

For students who are interested in attending med school in the USA, I have a really great set-up with RBC. They approved my LOC relatively quickly (BMO gave me a lot of trouble). Importantly, they have a US bank that you can transfer money to from your Canadian Royal Bank account for NO FEE and the transfer is instant. The US Bank (RBC Bank USA) has a really cheap account ($3/month - fee is waived if your account balance is $700+; or if you have a balance over a certain amount on your LOC, you can get their premium US account for free which also gives you a guaranteed preferred exchange rate). If you talk to the account manager, you might be able to negotiate a way to get him or her to manually do the currency conversion for you and get you a preferred exchange rate too.

We are currently trying to get a hold of Ian because none of us have access to admin ability to get to the bottom of the problem. He should get back to us soon. We are also aware of the user CP problem and are discussing ways to fix it. Sorry for the trouble this may be causing you guys.

Hello OP,
You should really evaluate your plans and figure out what is it that you want. The MCAT is a crucial part of the application. Reading about your stats, you have a decent shot at a lot of schools - but only if you write the MCAT! It's a huge test, but reallly is the only thing that will allow you to get your foot in the door at any school. Many people even have to rewrite the test, so while I understand that you are quite busy with your PhD work - I would urge you to really figure out a way to write the MCAT. Like lost__in__space, I (re)wrote the MCAT while I was completing my master's project and it was definitely a brutal experience (for a few months I spent all day in the lab, all night in second cup lol)... but it honestly had to be done! Nobody can tell you how competitive you are unless you have an MCAT score because it's such a huge part of the application. Good luck!

Step 1 cares! haha.
Jochi brings up a good point though. It depends on your school. My school in the US is extremely heavily basic science based, but that's because the first (and most important) US licensing exam is like that.

Hello OP:
I wouldn't worry about what field you are from. There are majors from all over the place in medicine. If you want to pursue this career, however, you need to shake off this nervous feeling about the basic sciences. You have to put in a lot of time and energy to begin to develop the skills to master it somehow. All you will need is basic university introductory level courses. I realize that some schools don't have any pre-requisites for medical curriculum, but I really think that's stupid. Your life will be a LOT easier if you have taken some basic science work before starting. The important thing is to start somewhere. You might find a lot of the material difficult at first, so I don't think it'd be good to take all of them at one time (if you have no experience in any of them), but figure out a strategy to take them so that you will be able to write the MCAT and do well.
In my personal opinon, I do not think it matters at all how you begin. At least so far in my education, I have had to use very little physics, and I still think I understand a lot of medical science! The key thing is to learn the basics and use a lot of repetition! I started learning biology and chemistry before I had a solid background in physics and I don't think that hurt me in the slightest. Don't get me wrong - understanding some physics though is important (ex. resistance & blood flow), but I really don't think the order you learn things matters at all.
Good luck OP!